
'l^^jtZi. 



s.<iy 






Jt^t^ 



I ^Y- -Pi^^ 



■u- 




Class ^ --L u 

Book -^^5^ 



1 






OUR LIBERTIES://^^ 




THEIR DANGER, 



AND 






A DISCOrRSE, 



GEORGE W. BETHUNE, 

MINISTER OF THE REPOHMEI) DUTCH CHUKCH, CHOWK ST. PHItABEtPHIA. 



BY REQUEST. 



GEORGE W. MENTZ & SON, 53 N. THIRD STREET. 
John C. Clark, Printer, GO Dock Street. 

1835. 



..x 






^-^^. 



C V ^ 




,A-^^^^^^'^ 



i". 



i» 



OUR LIBERTIES. 



OUR LIBERTIES: 



THEIR DA1\«ER, 



<^:joi laiMS m mmm'^wi^ mm:> 



A DISCOURSE, 



BY 



GEORGE W. BETHUNE, 

MimSTER OP THE REFORMCD DUTCH CHTTRCH, CROWN ST. PHILADELPHIA. 



BY REQUEST. 



Ptlilatrelptjta: 

GEORGE W, MENTZ & SON, 53 N. THIRD STREET. 

John C. Clark, Printer, 60 Dock Street. 

1835. 






The substance of the following discourse was delivered to the 
congregation of the First Reformed Dutch Church, on the Sabbath 
immediately succeeding the 4th of July. A number of those who 
heard it then, desired its publication. More recent events has in- 
duced a compliance with their wishes, and it is sent to the press 
with some additional remarks, as a humble but earnest rebuke of 
the evil spirit abroad in our land. The pulpit should speak out on 
this subject, and in the silence of others it may be that this small 
voice may not b.e unheard. 

Philadelphia^ Avgnst 17th, 1835. 



Galatians, v. 1. 
" Standfast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." 

Jesus Christ was a patriot. The overflowings of his love 
went forth through every channel of human afiection. Faith- 
ful to his God, faithful to his people, and faithful to the world, 
he was not the less faithful to the land of his birth. This is 
clearly seen in his personal efforts to bless his brethren of a 
common ancestry, his tears over the waning glories of Jeru- 
salem, and his command (given after his bitter trials and 
death) to begin there the work of evangelizing the world. ' 

Every Christian should be a patriot. Christianity is the 
religion of Him, who implanted in our hearts a love for our 
oion, and who condemns the man who owns no such ties, as 
worse than an infidel. The love of country is but an exten- 
sion of the love of home. Association, gratitude, and inte- 
rest, combine to feed its flame. The plea of general benevo- 
lence, as an excuse for the neglect of meaner ties, is hypocri- 
tical and false. The loftiness of philanthropy cannot be at- 
tained by despising the intermediate gradations of social feel- 
ing. The man, who would abandon his household to want, 
that he might lavish his substance upon strangers, is scarcely 
more unnatural than he, who divorces his country from his 
heart to make room for the world. The Author of virtue has 
established a different order. He has indeed made the heart 
of man the centre of a circle wide as humanity, but he hath 
described within it narrower spheres, which the heart must 
overflow to reach the farther boundary; and he who is not a 



6 

patriot, can never be a philanthropist. Yet, as moral duties 
never clash with each other, and as personal happiness can 
only be attained by a wise regard to the general good, so true 
patriotism can never be inconsistent with more extended be- 
nevolence; and the converse of the proposition is evident, 
that he who is not a philanthropist can never fulfil the obliga- 
tions of a patriot; nor can he serve his country aright, who 
disobeys the precepts of his God. 

But, my hearers, if patriotism be so natural an affection, 
that he who feels it not is a monster among his kind, what 
should be the strength of its emotion in our hearts? " The 
Lord hath not dealt so with any other people." Our coun- 
try, in the early bloom of her youth, rises high in comparison 
with the empires of the past or present, and reads in the catas- 
trophe of other infant commonwealths the truth, that none 
less than Almighty Power hath fostered her recent vigour. 
The confused rabble of democratic Athens, the barbarous 
strength of brutal Sparta, the unequal rights of consular Rome, 
although the gray veil of classic reverence hath somewhat 
hidden their rude proportions, place in bolder relief the doric 
simplicity of our rising government. While half unfranchised 
Britain struggling to imitate our example, and France re- 
lapsing from spasmodic tumults and abused opportunity, to 
yet more galling servitude, remind us of our peculiar bless- 
ings. God himself has placed our country on the mount of 
his favour, and despite the efforts of their despotic masters, 
the people of all nations look to the brightness of our watch- 
fires, and take courage. Yet is there no danger? Can one be 
so blind to the imperfection of our nature, and of all human 
institutions, as to believe we may repose in safety and aban- 
don the watch over our privileges? Are there no dark clouds 
skirting our political horizon, no tremblings beneath the foot, 
which may be presages of the storm and earthquake? Chris- 
tians and fellow citizens, 

" Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made his 
people free." 

The reference of the text is not indeed directly to civil 
liberty. It intends primarily the deliverance of evangelized 



7 

Israel from the bondage of the Levitical ritual, and includes 
their freedom from the bondage of sin. But liberty is one. 
Its source must ever be the same. The purpose of the gospel 
is to break every yoke, and there is not a form which true 
liberty can assume, that derives not its beauty and its vigour 
from the spirit of Christ dwelling within as the animating 
principle. The text, therefore, instructs us as patriots. 

Let us then consider, 

First. The nature of true liberty. 

Second. The dangers to which our liberties are exposed. 

Third. The means of their preservation. 

1st. The nature of true liberty. Liberty we would define 
to be — Freedom in the right pursuit of happiness. God 
gives to every intelligent creature a right to be happy, for it 
is impossible to suppose, that a benevolent being would create 
another to be miserable. This right supposes the right to 
pursue the means of happiness, of which no man can be de- 
prived without injustice. 

True liberty is thus not inconsistent, but perfectly harmo- 
nious with our obligation to obey the laws of God. 

For happiness under the government of a wise and holy 
God, who has constituted man after his own image, can only 
be enjoyed by us in obedience to the fundamental laws which 
he has ordained, and the moral connexions of cause and effect 
must be as certain as the physical. A transgression of these 
laws is an abuse of freedom, and a voluntary forfeiture of hap- 
piness. The man who is restrained from prosecuting his la- 
bour or his pleasure by the demands of his body for food or 
for sleep, suffers no deprivation of liberty, because food and 
sleep are necessary from the constitution of his nature. He 
must comply with these demands, or perish. Thus also the 
commands to abstain from drunkenness, sensuality, or idle- 
ness, are no infringement of our liberty, because such crimes 
are opposed to our true happiness. So the precepts which 
forbid envy, malice, hatred, avarice, discontent, are all in per- 
fect consistence with true liberty. Indeed, obedience to the 
Divine will is the only right method of pursuing happiness. 

But man is not solitary. He is constituted with relations 



to his fellow men. Dependent upon them, as he is, for happi- 
ness, he owes to them reciprocal duties; and, as the right dis- 
charge of these reciprocal duties is necessary to the happiness 
of the whole, of which he is a part, so the commands of God, 
which enjoin him to seek their welfare, and refrain from their 
injury, are not infringements of his true liberty, but, on the 
contrary, his obedience to them is its proper exercise. The 
same laws which prohibit him from invading the life, the pro- 
perty, or the domestic peace of his neighbour, restrain his 
neighbour from the like invasion on his own. Without such 
laws there would be no security, and, consequentlj^, no happi- 
ness. Equally necessary to his personal enjoyment are those 
precepts which enjoin active benevolence and interchanging 
kindnesses, for they are intended to acquire for him the same 
blessings which they require him to confer. The imperfect 
recognition of the divine government by men has led to the 
necessity of human laws, as an immediate and tangible security 
of human rights. For this purpose God has given his sanction 
to governments upon earth, and explicitly commands us, to 
" submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's 
sake, whether to the king as supreme, or unto governors as 
unto them who are sent by him for the punishment of evil 
doers, and for the praise of them that do well; for so is the 
will of God, that with well doing we may put to silence the 
ignorance of foolish men, as free.', yet not using our liberty as 
a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God." Our 
obligation, therefore, to obey the laws of men, so far as they 
are consistent with divine law, is not an infringement of true 
liberty, but, on the contrary, right government is essential to 
its enjoyment and preservation; and whenever human laws 
are most consistent with the divine, then m,en may enjoy 
the truest liberty. 

Thus, a FREE GOVERNMENT. MUST BE A GOVERNMENT OF 

THE PEOPLE, by which I mean, one whose laws emanate from 
the people they govern as their sovereign source. 

For, as the pursuit of happiness is the right of every man, 
and God has constituted every man the cultivator of his own 
happiness, no one may justly restrain him in it, except where 



9 

it interferes vvitli the good of the community. Of this inter- 
ference none but a majority of that community has a right to 
decide, and to the voice of that majority every one should 
willingly submit himself; for although instances of wrong from 
the community to individuals may occur, they will be compa- 
ratively rare, as no one would knowingly give sanction to a 
precedent for wrong to himself; and each citizen in guarding 
the right of his neighbour guards his own. As a matter of 
course, there are exceptions to this right of every individual 
to share in his own government, as in the case of those, who 
from youth or other disabilities, are incompetent to its exer- 
cise, yet these do not aflect the general rule. The arbitrary 
governments of Europe are formed in opposition to this natu- 
ral right of self-government, and the right of ruling others is 
claimed most preposterously from inheritance; or, more pro- 
fanely, from divine grant; while it remains for us to exhibit 
before the world, the first example of its safe and enlightened 
exercise. 

Thus, also, a free government should secure liberty of 
CONSCIENCE IN THE WORSHIP OF GoD. Religion is a matter 
between man and his Maker: to his Maker alone, therefore, he 
is responsible for it. Except where its exercise interferes with 
the same right in others, no man, or set of men, has justly the 
power, directly or indirectly, to restrain another in his reli- 
gious conduct. If a man, by his mode of worship, or his con- 
tempt of worship, interrupts the devotion of his fellow citizens, 
or propagates such sentiments (falsely called religious,) as are 
contrary to good morals, or dangerous to civil freedom, he 
should be restrained as a transgressor of common rights, but in 
no other case. The promise, therefore, of peculiar temporal pri- 
vileges upon the one hand, or the threat of temporal penalties 
on the other, to influence individuals in the adoption of a reli- 
gion, is a violation of natural right, and a l)lasphemous attempt 
upon the divine prerogative. It is, moreover, absurd in its 
very nature, for the opinions and sentiments of the inner 
man are beyond the reach of hum.an powder; and hence per- 
secution never destroyed any sect of religionists. (You will re- 
mark, however, that I am here speaking of civil, not ecclesiasti- 

B 



10 

cal governments; for I am far from admitting that discipline 
in churches, with reference to opinion, is wrong or needless. 
In most ecclesiastical associations, the bond of union is reli- 
gious doctrine; and where one has united himself voluntarily 
to a sect, and afterwards embraces and teaches sentiments 
which the voice of that sect declares to be different, he ought 
to be expelled, as having violated his covenant, and is guilty 
of a breach of faith in seeking to remain.) Jirhitrary go- 
vernments uniformly interfere with the religious worship of 
their subjects, because they desire the aid of ecclesiastical in- 
fluence to control the people. It is indeed worthy of observa- 
tion, that the state has always sought the aid of the church, 
in the first instance, and never the church the aid of the 
state, until the example had thus been set. A careful refer- 
ence to the history of establishments will confirm this asser- 
tion. But it is the glory of our country, that here every man 
may worship God according to the dictates of his conscience, 
and that all the advantages of citizenship are offered to every 
one without reference to his religion. Thus may it ever re- 
main; for God is able to succeed his own cause without the 
aid of civil power, and the union of church with state is more 
dangerous to the purity of the first, than the freedom of the 
last. 

So, a free government should secure our personal free- 
dom AND THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 

These belong to the individual. It is, therefore, a violation 
of liberty to pass laws restraining the subject from going 
where he pleases in liis pursuit of happiness, or in the acquisi- 
tion and use of wealth, except so far as is necessary for the 
public good, in the decision of which question he should have 
a voice. Such instances may occur, as in the punishment of 
crime, the prevention of pestilence, the levying of armies for 
national defence, or the laying of taxes for the support of go- 
vernment, or of duties for the regulation and protection of in- 
dustry. But, if otherwise my personal liberty or property be 
at the disposal of others, my pursuit of happiness is at an end. 
Hence, the first efforts of those struggling under a despotism 
is to attain these rights, as they seem to lay at the foundation 



11 

of all; and hence, the peculiar excellence of our happy institu- 
tions, which, by an equality of representation, give to every 
man a power over his own freedom and purse. 

These are the principal elements of a free government; and 
in the intelligent use of such privileges, with obedience to the 
commands of God, the highest enjoyment of temporal libei'ty 
and happiness consists. This liberty, like every other blessing, 
we derive from Christ; and, had I time, it could be shown 
that it is peculiarly the result of Christian principles: for the 
history of the world demonstx-ates that civil liberty has ever 
been in proportion to the prevalence of pure Christianity. 
While, therefore, it is to God we give thanks, we may receive 
from God the exhortation, — 

" To stand fost in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made 
us free." 

2d. Let us consider the dangers to which our liberties are 
exposed. 

As the great evil of sin is to subject the mind to the inferior 
body, so the great danger to true liberty is the contest between 
might and law, between brute force and right reason. Pre- 
cisely as men refuse to submit to the government of reason, 
have they recourse to physical strength. The same principle, 
which leads an angry, becau.se unsuccessful, disputant to knock 
his antagonist down, leads men, who would unjustly oppress 
others, to do it by main force. Hence, the scourge and the 
chain are the inseparable accompaniments of slavery; hence, 
arms have been called the last argument of kings; and hence, 
the immense armies of arbitrary governments. It was this, 
which made our fathers so jealous of a standing army, and it 
is the supremacy of reason alone that can render it unnecessary 
for home purposes. 

Here, however, lies the secret of our danger in the United 
States. The very instinct of our natures, the very genius of 
our free institutions whicli lead us to resist the usurpations of 
power, are liable to pervert our strength in resisting or over- 
coming law, when it seems to interfere with our inclinations, 
or personal interests. When men are conscious of the power 
to resist or oppress, and their minds are not sufficiently en- 



12 

lightened as to their true interests to employ such power aright, 
there is always danger. In popular governments, when the 
numerical force of contending parties is brought into clear 
comparison by their ballots, this danger must be peculiarly 
great. It is distinctly visible in that jacobinism which seeks 
to attain its ends in any other way than by the intervention of 
law. 

It is this spirit which has excited the various riots that have, 
from time to time, disgraced so many portions of our land, no 
matter by what cause excited, or against what objects directed. 
It may be religious persecution in burning a convent; or 
hatred against the blacks in tearing down their dwellings; or 
indignation against a gang of gamblers in summarily hanging 
them; or hate of insurrectionists in executing them without 
legal trial; or in violating the sanctity of the mail to come at 
incendiary publications; but the spirit is the same, and always 
dangerous. Every man has a right to justice, and justice re- 
quires calmness and deliberation. It can never be administer- 
ed by an infuriated populace, or an illegal and usurping ca- 
bal. The next night pi'cjudice may direct the same violence 
against a protestant church or the best citizens of our land. It 
is submitting every thing for decision to a contest of brute 
force. It is vain to say, there are cases beyond the reach of 
law. Law is reason, and where reason cannot govern, there 
can be no liberty; and the elements of society are reduced to 
chaos. Laws alone should be invoked, but never brute force 
substituted for them. If sucli be the state of things under our 
institutions, that might must govern, good night to liberty. 
If might must rule, let it be the might of one tyrant, not of 
many. 

The same tendency is seen in what are technically termed 
STRIKES, when combinations are formed by men who refuse 
to labour, and a parade of physical force is made to intimidate 
their fellow woi'kmen and their employers, that the price of 
labour may be enhanced. These measures can rarely be car- 
ried out without violence, either against dissenting workmen, 
or those who employ them, as we see in the frequent fights, 
and incendiarisms, which accompany them. It is also vain to 



13 

attempt any lasting alteration by such means. It is a sense- 
less opposition to the unchangeable and resistless laws of profit 
and loss. Labour, like every other marketable thing, will 
bring its price, and no more than its price; and that price can 
only be regulated by the necessary competition of trade. If 
the demand for the products of labour be more than the num- 
ber of labourers can supply, the master workman will increase 
the rate of the wages he pays, that he may obtain workmen, 
and thus secure his own profits, being justified in so doing by 
the increased price of his articles. But if the number of la- 
bourers be greater than is necessary to supply the demand for 
their products, the price of those products must fall, and con- 
sequently the price of labour must fall with them; for no man 
will pay others what would take away his own profits. A 
strike, therefore, is at best only a trial between the journey- 
men and the master workmen as to which can do without 
bread the longest, for a combination of the one class will ne- 
cessarily produce a combination of the other, in self-defence. 
Labour, I repeat, must have its market price. It is regulated 
by the supply and demand. Every man will give as much as 
he can, that he may secure more profits for himself; and no 
men will willingly give more, lest he lose those profits. As it 
would be unjust in me to compel a man to take less than the 
market price, so it is unjust in him to compel me to give more; 
and what is unjust in an individual, is unjust in a body of men. 
The first would be unjust in a combination of master-work- 
men, so the last is unjust in the workmen themselves. Such 
combinations must be fruitless. A man may dip water from 
a river in a bucket, but he cannot empty the river; water will 
flow in to supply the vacuum; so the refusal of any number of 
labourers to work will not permanently alter the state of 
things; other labourers will come in to supply their places, or 
the products of more remote industry will supply the absence 
of their own. One might as well attempt to make water flow 
up hill, as to raise the price of wages by such means. The 
capitalist must get interest for his money, or he will let it re- 
main safely locked up. The labourer must get wages to buy 
his bread, or starve. And, I doubt not, if the investigation 



14 

were made, into the stagnation of trade, the stoppage* of build- 
ings and various enterprises in consequence of these strikes, 
together with the idle days, and the expenses of the dissipa- 
tion accompanying the tedium of unusual idleness, putting the 
moral and physical evils out of the question, it would be seen 
that more has been lost by standing out than years can reco- 
ver. Jealousy has been excited between classes who have a 
common interest; and in the event of any unusual pressure 
upon the industry of the country, it may well be feared, that 
appeals to considerate and charitable indulgence, once always 
successful, would be made almost in vain. May it not also be 
regretted, that many of our more intelligent citizens who must 
have known better, should have lent their sanction and their 
influence, through the press or otherwise, to courses most ru- 
inous to the mistaken men themselves who pursued them? 
Such a spirit carried out would ruin all social peace and mu- 
tual rights. It is an appeal to force, not justice. 

The same arguments, it will easily be seen, will apply to 
strikes for hours as well as wages, except in the case of those 
who have nobly refused to break the Sabbath with secular 
and unnecessary labour, in which refusal they deserve the 
support of all good citizens. 

We see this tendency manifested also in the endeavours 
which are made to array the rich and jmor as parties 
against each other. This is done, on the one hand, by ap- 
peals to the labouring classes to combine against the rich, (or 
the aristocracy as they are fantastically termed) and on the 
other, in the unmeasured epithets by which the one are dis- 
tinguished as low and vulgar, from the refined and intelligent. 
Such a course is very madness. Nothing can be gained from 
it, while scarcely any thing is more dangerous. It appeals to 
the worst passions of our nature, exciting the few rich to use 
their money as a defence against tlie physical and numerical 
force of the many in the labouring classes. It needs but a 
glance to sec, that in a free government like ours, their inte- 
rests are so intimately combined, that an injury to the one is 
of necessity an injury to the other. For as the poor cannot 
live but upon the employment afforded by the capital of the 



15 

rich, so the rich cannot get interest for their capital, or enjoy 
the luxuries of life, without the employment of the poor. If 
a rich man have a fuller wardrobe, the tailor and the semp- 
stress have the more employment, while the hatter, the shoe- 
maker, and the jeweller, come in for their share. If he have 
a mahogany table, he must pay the cabinet maker for it; if he 
ride in his carriage, he must employ the coach builder and 
the saddler; if he live in a finer house, the carpenter, the 
mason, and the painter, all demand their toll upon his luxu- 
ries. His trade gives employment to the ship builder, the 
mariner, and the drayman; and so his wealth finds its way 
necessarily through all the channels of life. Were all men 
poor, what would become of the poor? Were all men rich, 
what would be the use of riches? Why then "put asunder 
those whom God has joined together?" The very nature of 
things in a free government, where there are no hereditary 
privileges, is opposed to such conflicts. There can be no aris- 
tocracy among us, but that of successful industry, talent, and 
worth. Such appeals, therefore, must lead to disastrous re- 
sults. For, if to be rich is to expose a man to the oppression 
of the labouring classes, (who constitute the governing ma- 
jority) the motives to become rich are taken away, the sinews 
of enterprise are cut, and the rewards of the labourer must 
cease, while capital will be exported to- some safer place of 
use and deposit. 

The same remarks ma}^, to a certain extent, be applied to 
appeals made to our citizens as distinctive classes, as to me- 
chanics in opposition to merchants or professional men, to na- 
tive citizens in opposition to those whom in good faith we 
have adopted as sharing with ourselves in common benefits, 
to the north in opposition to the south, the west to the east, 
the country to the town. Wc are one in interest, why should 
we not be one in heart? Away then with such distinctions, 
made and used originally by political gamblers, who would 
stake the welfare of the nation against their personal aggran- 
dizement. Let no name be known, but that of American 
citizen; no rallying cry be heard, but for our country, 
OUR whole country, and our country as one. 



16 

I could allude also to the manifestation of the same radical 
and Jacobinical spirit, as seen in the course of those, who in 
blind or pretended zeal for the abolition of slavery, evince a 
determination to trample upon the sacred compact which se- 
cured our country's liberties, and to scatter "fire-brands, ar- 
rows, and death," among the dwellings of our southern breth- 
ren; who defame in their scurrilous prints the characters of 
the best of men (aye, and of women too), who cannot adopt 
their frenzied zesil, and who reward with plaudits and prema- 
ture apotheosis the foreign and hired agitator, for his calum- 
nies against their native land. There may be, nay, there are, 
many good and sincere, though misguided men among them; 
yet is the spirit of their party jacobinism, for it is in open 
violation of the acknowledged principles of our government. 
It is as though they gave Philanthropy a torch, and Mercy a 
poniard, and bade them burn and destroy in the name of 
melting charity. 

And so also might 1 turn to our southern compatriots, and 
ask, if they, in their denunciation of all philanthropy for the 
enslaved negro, even the wisest, and their loud and furious 
threats to know no law in their resistance of fancied or real 
wrongs, whether they do not invite the censure they heap 
upon others? They say it is none of our business, and that 
we have no right even to think or feel in the matter. Not 
feel for the black man? Not pity the slave? Not desire uni- 
versal freedom by safe and legal means? Not wish the vindi- 
cation of our common land from the censures of a liberated 
world? Before God, we must. He hath put the mercy in 
our hearts, and we cannot cast it forth. We love them, we 
will seek their good, we will invoke heaven's blessings on 
their heads; but we must feel, we must weep, we must pray, 
for the brethren of our race who are in l)ondage, though their 
faces be black, and their fathers were Ijondsmen. We cannot 
be traitors to our nature, despisers of Christianity, and rebels 
against our God, in forgetting that they are men and breth- 
ren. 

The rapid increase of vicious indulgence, in a community 
like ours, must tend to the destruction of true liberty. For 



IT 

it not only impairs a man's perception of his true interests, 
but makes him the slave of his vicious propensities, and con- 
sequently the means of indulgence the price of his freedom. 
What will not the drunkard give for the gratification of his 
thirst, or the sensualist of his lust? Money can never reduce 
to bondage a virtuous commonwealth. The fewness of their 
wants place them beyond the reach of bribes. "See," said a 
frugal patriot of ancient times, when one came to bribe him to 
the betrayal of his country; "See my dinner, see my dwell- 
ing, see my garments; can your master purchase one whose 
wants are so few?" It is the vices of our countrymen which 
will make them slaves, if ever they become so. Vice, while 
it degrades our spirits, makes us needy, and unless our morals 
be preserved, money in some form or other will yet be the 
tyrant of America. 

Had 1 time, I would dwell with special emphasis upon one 
vice, which makes more thieves, more murderers, more in- 
cendiaries; beggars more households; widows more wives; 
abandons more children; builds more jails; fills more alms- 
houses; inflicts more taxes; destroys more lives; and damns 
more souls, than any or all other causes put together; I mean, 
the use of ardent spirits as a drink. It has already branded 
us among the people of the earth as a nation of drunkards, 
and unless it be arrested, it will yet brand us as a nation of 
slaves. 

I might have shown the moral connexion of danger from 
the wrath of God with our national sins; our sins of profanity 
for which "the land mourneth;" of Sabbath breaking, (even 
in high places) and neglect of divine worship; our sins of 
pride in forgetting our dependence upon the God of nations; 
our sins of injustice against those who suffer as slaves amidst 
a nation of freemen: but I forbear, as such considerations, 
though not sufiiciently appreciated, are more obvious, and 
may also be included in the two general heads we have noted, 
ignorance of our true interests, and vice. These are the dan- 
gers that threaten a government like ours, which is based 
upon the opinions of the people. For, if the people be igno- 

c 



18 

rant, they will become the dupes of the designing: if they be 
vicious, they will become tl>e venal slaves of power. 

3d. Let us consider the best means of preserving our liber- 
ties. 

And now I speak to Christian patriots. We have seen that 
true liberty consists in obedience to right laws, and that laws 
are right only as they are agreeable with the laws of God. 
We have also seen, that ignorance wliich obeys our inferior 
nature rather than our reason, and vice which subjects the 
mind to the propensities of our bodies, are the great dangers 
of our liberties. The rigiit method to maintain them, there- 
fore, is to diffuse inteUigenct and virtue. The Christian, 
however, believes that true intelligence and virtue are secured 
by the gospel alone. A man must know himself to be im- 
mortal, and what the will of his God is, to know wherein true 
happiness consists; and this knowledge, when practically re- 
ceived, is the best security to the practice of virtue. Indeed, 
it may correctly be asserted, that the idea of self-government 
is a chimera. It can have no real existence. God made man 
a subject. He must have a king; and that people, who ac- 
knowledges no king in heaven, will soon be ruled by tyrants 
upon earth. 

The extension of jnire religion is then the best mean of 
securing the liberty of our country. That religion, which 
makes the law of God the rule of all our conduct; that reli- 
gion, which fixes the eye of God upon our secret practices and 
our inward motives; that religion, wliich ])roposes the richest 
rewards to virtue, and the heaviest penalties against sin which 
the law of man cannot, nor dare not reach; that religion, which 
brings every man before the judgment seat of God in his re- 
sponsibility; and which draws by the sweetest inducements in 
the exhibition of a Saviour's love the heart of man to follow 
his example. 

This religion is not to be advanced by civil power. He is 
a traitor to her cause who would seek her elevation by any 
other strength than her own. The mean's of this advancement 
God has clearly laid down. The Christian will do it by his 
example. " Standing fast in the lil)erty wherewith Christ 



11) 

hath made him free," lie, hy the purity of his life, tlie e(iuity 
of his dealings, the henevolencc of his acts, the conscientious 
use of his right of suflrage (for which he is responsible as for 
any other talent), and by the diligent discharge of every other 
duty, is to win others to admire and pursue the same course of 
happy freedom v.'ith himself. The force of Christian exam- 
j)le alone, were every Christian in the land ftiUiful to his 
duty, loould place our liberties beyond the reach of dan- 
ger. 

The Christian will extend the gospel by the spread of its 
ordinances. Whatever mean God gives his sanction to in his 
word, for converting sinners to himself, he will employ in 
preserving the liberty of his country. The word of God will 
be placed in the hand of every citizen. The pulpit will be 
erected in every hamlet. The religious tract committed to 
every breeze. The Sabbath school embrace every growing 
youth. The morality of the gospel, its temperance, its chas- 
tity, its meekness, and its charity, will be recommended to 
every heart. Thus God will be exalted, and blessed shall be 
that people, whose God he is. 

This includes the blessing of general education. The 
minds of our fellow citizens should be trained and fitted to ap- 
preciate the claims of duty to God and man; and thus be per- 
suaded of the fitness and wisdom of virtue and order. Cheap 
but instructive publications, communicating the elements of 
useful knowledge, especially of the principles of government, 
should be diffused among them. Not a science which opens 
the secrets of nature, which traces the connexion of effects 
with their causes, wliich developes and strengthens the powers 
of the mind, or which may amuse the season of leisure from 
folly and crime, will the Christian believe unimportant to this 
end ; but by his fostering care, the church, the school-house, the 
lyceum, and the college, will flourish together, as the orna- 
ments and stays of the republic. 

But, as all means are inefficient Avithout the divine blessing, 
the Christian will invoke, by prayer, the presiding blessing 
of the King of kings, lie will pray for himself, that he may 
bo al)le to live worthy of the high trust committed to him, a^ 



20 

one ol" Ihc guardians of the republic, and that he may keep no- 
thing back, which her interests demand from him. lie will 
pray for the church, that her influence may be rightly exer- 
cised and continually extended like preserving salt. He will 
pray for the people, that they may " do justice, love mercy, 
and walk humbly with God." And never will he forget 
(what, alas! is too often forgotten,) to pray for " all who are in 
authority," that they may be guided into all truth, and that the 
blessing of Him, " upon whose shoulders is the government," 
may rest upon them. The prayers of one righteous man had 
well nigh saved Sodom, and the fervent prayers of the church 
united are sufficient to save and jjcrjietuate our freedom. 
Ah! my beloved Christians, here is work to do better than 
sectarian disputes and party squabbles; better than adventuring 
new theories, and reviving old polemics. Oh! that we could 
cast all aside, and neither otTering ofl'ence, or taking it readily, 
live for our country and our God like Christian patriots. Then 
should the glory of the Lord burn around our coasts, and 
"' over all the glory there would be a defence." — Amen. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 836 748 



